Trump vs. Judge on Alien Enemies Act Escalates, Biden Autopen Questions, Putin Call: AM Update 3/18
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Good morning, everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. It's Tuesday, March 18th, 2025, and this is your AM Update. If a district court judge can be involved in the conduct of a foreign policy, under no definition do we have a democracy in this country. The Trump administration doubling down on deporting more than 100 Tren de Aragua gang members from Venezuela in spite of a judge's order demanding their return to the United States.

President Trump announcing President Biden's last-minute pardons signed by Autopen are null and void. Is that legal? And Russian President Vladimir Putin and American President Trump expected to speak later today in hopes of securing a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Senator Chuck Schumer cancels a book tour citing alleged security concerns amid reports of progressive groups planning protests of him. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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A federal judge ordering the Trump administration back into court yesterday following the successful deportation of Trenda Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The DOJ's motion to vacate the hearing denied by D.C. District Court Judge James Boasberg.

On Saturday, that judge ordering a two-week pause on the administration's plans to conduct deportations under the Wartime Act, which also applies in case of an invasion, stating any planes already in the air must turn around and return to the United States. This order granted in spite of Supreme Court precedent stating that the Alien Enemies Act does not allow judicial review of removal orders.

Judge Boasberg demanding answers from the Trump organization on Monday as to why he says they did not comply with his order. The Trump administration contends the planes were already in international territory at the time of the order and thus out of the judge's jurisdiction.

Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller explaining to reporters the administration's position. This ruling is a dangerous overreach. And if we got into a place in this country where district court judges could direct which general on the battlefield is going to be in charge of making which decisions, could direct what intelligence we could share. If a district court judge can be involved in the conduct of our foreign policy, under no definition do we have a democracy in this country.

Borders are Tom Homan telling Fox Business the White House complied with the original narrower order from the judge. Well, actually, we did comply with his written order on five aliens that he didn't want deported. And we complied with that. But look, you know, I agree with Carolyn. I don't think I have authority to have a plane of terrorists.

Turn around in the middle of international waters and bring terrorists back into this country. DOJ lawyers on Monday requesting the D.C. appellate court reassign this case to another judge.

Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt describing some of the crimes the Tren de Aragua deportees were involved in. They led a multi-state sex trafficking operation involving smuggling women into the United States, holding them in stash houses in Louisiana, Florida, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia, and forcing them into prostitution. They kidnapped and murdered a 33-year-old woman in Texas. They sexually and physically assaulted a woman and her daughter in Wisconsin. They conducted a mass shooting in Illinois.

Trenda Aragua is the same organization responsible for the rapes and murders of little Jocelyn Nangare and 22-year-old Laken Riley. Ms. Levitt says the government is paying El Salvador about $6 million to house these illegals on our behalf.

Critics of the administration say invoking the act poses a grave threat to American citizens. There are U.S. citizens of Venezuelan descent who are worried that they're going to be targeted, wrongly accused of being members of Trend de Aragua, deported without evidence, without a hearing. A lot of them are my friends, are my neighbors. They live in Miami. And what he is doing to Venezuelans is disgusting. But you know what? You voted for that. You're finding out.

We have to be prepared for the racial profiling of Latino boys ages 14 to 18 who right now have that conversation with your kids because they need to know their rights in the face of what this president is doing. The Alien Enemies Act only applies to non-citizens. Even naturalized citizens cannot be legally deported under this act.

Democrat congressman from Texas Jasmine Crockett telling CNN the Alien Enemies Act is antiquated. The government has other ways of deporting terrorist gang members, she says. We already have tools that are available to remove undocumented violent people from our country.

The idea that you want to go into a zombie law, it is the fact that we can't trust this administration to actually use a scalpel. But instead, they love to use a butcher knife on things. And so giving them this wide latitude to just kind of go across and just claim that anybody is anything is wrong. And so we do have courts. We do have processes. We do have laws. And we should just go ahead and use those.

Tom Homan responding to that criticism from outside the White House on Monday. You say to those who claim you're using a 200-year-old law to circumvent due process. An old law? Not as old as the Constitution. We still pay attention to that, don't we? Mr. Homan vowing the deportation flights will continue. President Trump declaring early Monday morning the pardons signed by Joe Biden's auto pen at the end of his presidency are null and void.

Mr. Trump writing on Truth Social, quote, Joe Biden did not sign them, but more importantly, he did not know anything about them. The necessary pardoning documents were not explained to or approved by Biden.

President Trump saying the staffers who did know about the auto pen signatures may have committed a crime. An auto pen is a mechanical device used to replicate the president's signature with a real pen as opposed to a stamp or a digital copy. Auto pens have been used by the White House for decades, the earliest models employed by Thomas Jefferson. Typically, they're only used for mass communications like Christmas cards and more routine documents.

President Obama employed the auto pen twice on major pieces of legislation, extending the Patriot Act in 2011 and again in 2013 to sign a fiscal bill. Both times the move was met with some controversy.

The questions surrounding the Biden administration's use of the auto pen originally raised last week by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Their investigation finding the signatures on President Biden's January 19th pardons for his family members, Dr. Fauci, General Milley, the J6 Select Committee, all appear to be identical. Throughout the week, the Heritage Foundation's oversight project identifying dozens more of President Biden's identical signatures on official White House documents.

Given President Biden's now widely recognized cognitive decline, President Trump challenging the validity of any auto pen signed documents. The whole subject of auto pen. Did he know what he was doing? Did he authorize it? Or is this somebody...

in an office, maybe a radical left lunatic, just signing whatever that person was. We may use it as an example to send some young person a letter. It's nice, you know, we get thousands and thousands of letters. But to sign pardons and all of the things that he signed with an auto pen is disgraceful. But I would say that they're not at all, because I'm sure Biden didn't have any idea that it was taking place. And somebody was using an auto pen to sign off and to give

The New York Post reporting late last week, two Biden White House staffers suspected a key aide may have abused the auto pen privileges. The staffer telling the Post, quote, everyone was suspicious of this individual exceeding their authority when claiming to speak for the president. There is no clarity on who actually approved what POTUS, meaning the president or the aide.

The Constitution does not require that a pardon be written at all, nor does it contain edicts about signatures. If President Trump is challenging whether Mr. Biden agreed to the pardons at all, that could lead to a legal dispute. So far, the White House has not announced any official challenges to the pardons. President Trump acknowledged to reporters if his claims go further, it would be up to the courts to decide.

Coming up, President Trump is set to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin later today, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer cancels a book tour citing security concerns amid reports of progressive groups planning protests at them. All that and more in just a moment on your AM Update.

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Later today, President Trump set to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the ongoing negotiations toward a ceasefire in Ukraine. In recent weeks, President Trump more open to discussing some concessions that will have to come from the Russians. The president providing some details on board Air Force One. I'll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. What sort of concessions will you be seeking to have Putin make to get a deal done? Well, I think we'll be talking about land negotiations.

There's a lot of land. It's a lot different than it was before the wars, you know. And we'll be talking about land. We'll be talking about power of lands. That's a big question. But I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides. Ukraine and Russia. We're already talking about that. Dividing up.

certain assets. Mr. Putin will reportedly be seeking ironclad guarantees that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO. Mr. Trump has repeatedly stated that will not happen. No word yet on what such guarantees might look like. Russian officials also stating their opposition to NATO observers deploying to Ukraine.

President Trump has expressed openness to sending French and British forces as peacekeepers after the war. President Trump believes those forces, in combination with U.S. economic investment in Ukraine, will be more than enough to thwart further Russian aggression. Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt describing the negotiations as on the 10-yard line. Mr. Trump has recently floated the use of sanctions against the Russians if necessary to speed along negotiations.

President Trump putting Iran on notice. Any further shots fired from Houthi rebels will be considered shots fired by Iran. The Houthis are a rebel group in Yemen that have been engaged in a civil war since they took over the capital in 2014. Their rallying cry is reportedly death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam.

President Trump writing on Truth Social, Iran is, quote, dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated military equipment and even so-called intelligence. The president warning Iranian leadership consequences of aiding the Houthis will be dire. The group stepping up attacks on ships in the Red Sea, which connects the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean shortly after the October 7th, 2023 attack on Israel.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says in that time the Houthis have attacked U.S. warships 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times. The group recently threatening to ramp up attacks even more. On Saturday, President Trump ordering strikes on the rebel group, the initial wave of strikes taking out more than 30 targets at multiple locations. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warning the group their fate is

is in their own hands. This campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence. The minute the Houthis say, we'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones, this campaign will end. But until then, it will be unrelenting.

The Red Sea is one of the most important global shipping lanes. According to the White House, before Houthi attacks, 25,000 merchant ships passed through the Red Sea annually, that number declining to about 10,000 thanks to Houthi threats. The alternative route is three times as long, forcing ships to travel all the way around Africa, driving up shipping prices and wait times. President Trump says the offensive is not just good for America, it's good for the world. ♪

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer postponing his book tour as activist groups and some Democrat lawmakers condemn his vote to keep the government open. Senator Schumer was scheduled to appear in Baltimore, Washington, New York City, Philly, and L.A. to promote his new book, Anti-Semitism in America, A Warning. A representative stating, quote, due to recent security concerns, Senator Schumer's book events are being rescheduled.

NBC reporting the New York event was supposed to be a conversation between the senator and New York Congressman Richie Torres. Mr. Torres openly criticizing Mr. Schumer's decision to advance the continuing resolution on the budget, posting on X, quote, bailing out the Republicans without extracting anything in return is political malpractice.

Specific security threats were not cited, though the Soros-backed progressive group Indivisible had planned protests surrounding stops on the tour. Indivisible is just one progressive group calling for Mr. Schumer to resign.

On Friday, 11 members of the Sunrise Movement, a group fighting for radical climate change policies, were arrested outside of Senator Schumer's office in Washington. A Change.org petition calling on Democrats to boycott donations to Senate Democrats until Mr. Schumer steps down, gathering more than 25,000 signatures.

The petition reading, quote, Mr. Schumer has been effectively impotent as minority leader, offering no comprehensive plan or strategy to combat the efforts by Trump and Elon Musk.

Amid the fallout, Senator Schumer's longtime legislative director is departing the office. Axios reporting the move's been in the works, allegedly for a number of months. This, as anger toward Mr. Schumer continues unabated amongst the Team Blue rank and file. So was it a fear of threats that led him to cancel the tour or of low attendance?

That'll do it for your AM update. I'm Megyn Kelly. Join me back here for The Megyn Kelly Show. We're live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east on youtube.com slash megynkelly and on all podcast platforms.